Alameda’s Lesson 9 heads to court

Tomorrow (Tues) is the first hearing in the Lesson 9 court case, one of the two efforts to allow parents to avoid having tolerance for gays/children of gays taught to their children. Of the two efforts, the lawsuit is the less pernicious in my mind, though still depressing.

Stepping away from the stated reason for both efforts (that the Recall is about extending diversity education to more people and that the lawsuit is about allowing parents to control when their children learn about health matters), the two efforts are still very different.

The Recall claims to speak for the majority of the community. Their call to action, which by every account has failed miserably, is a claim that by incorporating one annual 45-minute long lesson of tolerance towards LGBT families and people, AUSD has acted against the will of the majority of Alameda Voters. The lawsuit is more personal, a legal attempt by a small number of parents to solely opt their own kids out of the annual lesson. In that the legal strategy makes no claim that the filing has strong community support or desire, it’s at least a more accurate reflection of our city and school populations, one where Prop 8 failed miserably.

The lawsuit is another thing, stretching the idea that lesson 9 discusses family structure (i.e. same-sex parents) it claims that it falls under state health education code (like sex ed) and therefore is required to have an opt out. At least the lawsuit is about individual families who don’t want their children to be taught tolerance of those they feel are different from themselves. And by “at least,” I mean that they make no claims to some kind of silent majority that they are obviously not a part of.

One wonders, if the school loses, if they will have to allow an opt out for any lessons that talk about “family strucutre” whether it be single parent, or heterosexual parents? Ridiculous? Hardly. Tuesday’s hearing will be an interesting starting point.